Oh, baking. I know how to do it, sort of, but it never quite goes off without a hitch. First, I arose from my semi-peaceful slumber at a later hour than desired. I made my way to the store and figured I’d be fashionably late and not worry about it too much. I picked up the necessary ingredients and checked with my mom on the family secret recipe. I got a deal on organic butter, used a bunch of the leftover baking stuff from the last time I made cookies, and felt prepared for a couple hours of baking. Got home and cooked myself a couple of fried eggs with rosemary and sea salt (had to buy a half-dozen, forgot about the whole “no bulk eggs like at shoreline market” thing) while I surveyed the kitchen. As my eggs were hardening as much as possible, I started mixing dry ingredients together. I got to 1 tsp. of baking soda and couldn’t find the crappy measuring spoons. Of course, I had already put the walnuts in to roast a bit. In the 10-15 minutes I spent looking for the measuring spoons and involving the non-slumbering housemates, the walnuts turned out cajun style. Not Awesome.
I headed down to the local supermarket of doom to buy some more (non-organic this time, of course) and threw in a shiny (well, plasticky) new set of measuring spoons of my very own. Returned to the domicile and started back in. Chopped the walnuts and threw them in the stove. Started combining the rest of the dry ingredients and stirring in the butter and eggs. Cracked in the second egg and remembered the walnuts in the stove. Round two: burning hot oven: 2, walnuts 0. Looks like there won’t be any walnuts in these cookies…
It also turns out I was putting things together in the wrong order. In other words, I was doing it the hard way. Since I don’t have a mixer, I was stirring everything by hand with my trusty wooden spoon. The one I’ve had for approximately six years. “Had” as in past tense. Though my beefy arms were up to the task of forcing a spoon through thick cookie dough, the spoon was not so excited about it.
I didn’t really like that spoon anyways. I forced it to finish the job and eventually got some decent cookies done. I only ended up about 10 minutes late after it was all said and done, but I finished the cookies much later than I had planned.
They tasted alright, but using the raw sugar wasn’t such a good idea (and probably added to my spoon’s stress). There were a few cookies that had visible sugar bits in them. But I got no complaints. The rest of the cookies were pretty awesome. Fig pinwheels, gingersnaps, biscotti, more chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter chocolate, chocolate chip caramel, chocolate chip cherry, egg nog cookies, holly-like rice krispy treats, little chocolate cookies, and some decorate-able sugar cookies. That was my lunch today. Pretty awesome.
After pigging out on cookies, everyone sat around talking about various topics. I spent a lot of time talking about mathematics (abstract geometry and how determining all of the metrics on the boundary of a shape can tell you about the parameters of the shape itself [I should re-read my abstract geometry textbook next summer]) and about life with my BFF’s wonderful and interesting friend circle. It was a glorious and productive adventure. We then reveled in the faint glow of Charlie Brown’s Overexuberantly X-tian X-mas on VHS. And then BFF had the idea that the remaining cookie crew should get Pho for dinner. And it was so. And the people rejoiced.
I feel pretty good tonight. I think I’ll see if this Jamie person I’ve been chatting up wants to go out to breakfast next weekend. I’m a bit worried about the effects of the distance between us and a few other things, but it is currently my mission to jump headlong into these things without regard for the consequences. Hanging out with friends is a fine thing but it’d be nice to have the opportunity for something deeper again. I’m not sure this is the one, but I’m not sure it isn’t, either. Into the unknown we go!
Speaking of the unknown. I think I’m done with pictures of my new tattoo(s). If anyone would like to see them, I’m sure they’ll get to when they see me in person. Except students, that is.
I’ll now be staring at the ceiling for a bit listening for the next round of winter hail or rain or whatever else the evening will bring, digesting the massive amounts of sugar that I have enjoyed today, and attempting to get my sleep schedule back in line for work tomorrow. I hope all my weekends will be this enjoyable from now on.
Keywords: adventure, cookies, date